The sun was in the middle of it's run through the afternoon, when link and faria finally took a break, having got to the southern edge of the abbey. There seemed to be some sort of rusted robots of some sort dotted about the area. Link frowned, and was about to get close, when faria growled. The hylian stared at the wolfos for a moment, wondering what had gotten into her, when faria threw a rock near the robot. It suddenly lit up in a strange pink colour, with a blue eye. The blue eye locked onto the rock, and a blue/white laser hit the unfortunate rock, blasting it to smithereens.
Link gulped a little as he watched the robot turn this way and that, before settling down again, the colours fading, as it went back to pretending it was rusted over and useless. Faria motioned to link to follow her, as they quietly snuck their way past the robot, and crawled about the east side of the the abbey, before climbing over the wall, and into the abbey.
They made their way forward, when suddenly, a loud noise erupted up, and a dinging noise sounded. Link looked down at himself to see a red light being pointed at him. He gulped and ran, but he wasn't fast enough. Just as the robot finished charging it's laser, faria ran behind him, pushed him behind a wall. The laser flew past, grazing faria's back right foot and burning it as it slammed into the wall, causing a mini explosion.
Faria had pushed link out of the way, and had just about covered herself with the wall, when the laser had flown past, and her back foot felt like it was on fire. The wolfos bit back a cry of pain, and instead growled at link to climb the wall opposite them. Link seemed to get the message when faria pushed him toward it, and he climbed the wall carefully.
Whilst link was climbing, faria reappeared in front of the robot, the guardian she remembered with a snarl, and raced about, the pain in her foot ignored. The guardian shot it's laser, but never managed to hit her. Faria snorted and looked behind her to see that link had climbed the wall and was now jumping down. The wolfos smiled, but it was a foolish mistake.
The guardian's fire hit her full on in the leg this time. The wolfos screamed aloud at the burn and large tear on her leg from the guardian's blast. Luckily, she was close to the wall she and link had sheltered behind, and so she crawled behind it carefully, trying to focus. The guardian behind her made it's obnoxious noise a few more times, before becoming inactive once more.
Meanwhile, link had climbed over the wall, and had arrived at the next shrine. The ja baij shrine, or so a mystical voice once again told him. He had just opened the door to the shrine, when he heard the laser fire. He climbed onto the platform, his stomach dropping at the sound of faria's scream as he descended into his next trial.
The time seemed to stretch infinitely as faria lay there, trying to stop the bleeding. There was nothing she could do though, besides sterilising it, and applying pressure with her front paws. Fat lot of good that did. She was just about ready to lie fully on the ground and fall asleep, when she noticed a hole in the wall, big enough for her to fit through.
Carefully, faria crawled toward the hole, and smiled at the sight of the activated shrine. She was safe here. Link had gone in, judging by the glowing orange light and open door. She laid down beside it, and closed her eyes, waiting for link to come.
A gentle hand lifted her out of her dreams, and faria looked up to see a strange but familiar looking child smiling at her. The boy was dressed in green, and had a blue instrument strapped to his waist. As faria frowned at the apparition, it leaned forward and bandaged up her leg, before ruffling her fur and standing. Faria fell back into her dreams, as the young boy smiled, his eyes turning red, before his vanished.
Link had just finished his trial and gained his second spirit orb, when he heard something quietly. It sounded like a small shuffle, and a deep sense of relaxation filled him. Somehow, he knew that faria was safe. The young hylian then turned and made his way out of the shrine once more.
As link returned to the surface, he noticed the sun was starting to angle toward the evening curve, which meant that he had to hurry before he became a cat again. Or at least, that was what he thought would happen. He noticed faria sleeping by the shrine, her leg bandaged, and frowned. What had happened there?
As the sun began to sink lower in the sky, link had an idea. He unclipped the slate from his belt, along with the pouch that somehow contained all of his food and spare equipment and placed them next to faria. He then stretched and had a small nap, hoping to wake during the night, so that he could test his theory.
The curse wasn't nice to him, though. As soon as the sun had set, he transformed painfully into a cat once more. At least he still had the slate, which was a bonus, but he now had nowhere to put the stupid thing. He had the pouch as well, but it shared the same problem as the slate, and faria couldn't carry both. Not with her leg like that.
Link paced about a bit, before rummaging through the contents of his pouch. There had to be something that he could use, surely!
As he rummaged, faria awoke, a little confused at the bandages on her leg. As the wolfos got up, she felt a little ache from where she had slept awkwardly, but she noticed no limping or favouring her other leg. Weird. The wolfos sniffed at her leg, and then frowned. With a low growl, she pulled off the bandages, snapping the cloth with her teeth, and blinked in surprise at her fully healed leg. Just what was going on here?
Link turned at the noise and was about to stop faria from hurting herself even more, when he noticed the fully healed leg. "what in the name of the three goddesses happened?" the young cat asked, as he laid a paw on the limb. Faria raised an eyebrow, but did not speak, only offering a smallish snort of confusion. Link took his paw off of Faria's leg and looked over the bandages that were left behind. Most of them were clean enough to suffice for now.
Faria watched as link somehow managed to make a 'belt' of sorts using the cleaner bandages and clip his slate and pouch to it. The cat then made a few steps, before falling flat on his face. Faria smirked at the cat, before carefully picking him up and placing him on her back
"thanks" link mumbled from his spot on the wolfos' back.
"you're welcome kitty. Shall we go?" faria replied. Link growled and sank his claws slightly into her fur, making the wolfos flinch, before she made her way over the wall to the west of where they had started.
As they made their way to the exit over the walls of the abbey, faria spotted another rusted guardian, and snuck around it, hoping to get some distance between her and it. The wolfos speedily made her way to the old temple, before running alongside it to the south east.
After a while, the wolfos had made it to a log cabin, where the old man was sat near. Faria pulled back her ears somewhat, confused by the old man's ability to pop up anywhere, it seemed, and she ran over for a quick chat.
"why hello there. I see you two are doing quite well. May I ask about the progress you have made?" the old man asked. Faria nodded, and barked. Link translated this to the old man, telling him about the guardian, the abbey and faria's extremely quick healing. The old man seemed surprised that the wolfos had healed herself so fast, but he took it all in stride.
"so, where are you headed off to now?" the old man asked. Link twitched an ear before responding.
"We're going to the next shrine, over there by that cliff" link stated, pointing his paw in the general direction of the shrine. Faria nodded and was about to go, when the bag on link's back slipped a little and a wrapped hyrule bass slipped out and landed on the floor.
Faria rolled her eyes at the fish, before bending down to pick it up. The old man got there first, however, and he smiled in realisation at something. He placed the bass back into the pouch and then walked into his house. He later returned with a green coat of some sort, and a bag, filled with spicy peppers.
"these are for you. I had been wondering for a while what the ingredients to my favourite dish, the spicy seafood and meat fry, and it seems that you have been able to answer the question for me. So here you are. The warm doublet. And some spicy peppers. It shall help you a lot in your quest, I believe." The old man smiled, and handed them over to link, who jumped off of faria, and took off his pouch, before carefully setting the items inside.
Faria barked in thanks, before they were on their way to the next shrine. The duo passed some bokoblins, who were easily dealt with by faria's claws and jaws. The wolfos ran along and stopped a little while later, frowning.
There in front of them was a small set of trees, and a large gap. Large enough to climb a tree across, but too large for the wolfos to jump across, or link to do anything for at the moment. The duo sat there, at a loss for what to do.
After a while, faria and link decided to set up camp and wait for the sun to rise up once more. As the two sat beside one another, their equipment in a neat pile in front of them, the wolfos curled her tail around her feline friend and smiled at him. In the morning, they would continue to the next shrine in their quest to get off the great plateau.
